Pages

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Let's hope this one travels better!

This is "Falling Stars 2" and I finished up the label and binding Tuesday evening. It is going to Texas as a "thank you" to my sweet friend Doniene for the quilt top she donated for my daughter's fundraiser in August. A couple of posts ago you saw the original "Falling Stars" that Carla won in my fundraiser drawing. I sent it to Carla (who lives just a couple of hours away) by priority mail on a Tuesday and it took 6 days to get there! (Sound familiar Freda?) So when I go to town and mail this tomorrow I will definitely track it to see what adventures it might have!

After "Falling Stars 2" was completed I went to work on this. My youngest grandson, Ben, is going to be The Cat in the Hat for Halloween. DD#2 had the rest of the costume under control and I offered to tackle the hat. After viewing a few online tutorials (which were all for hats larger than I needed), I was able to pull this together without too much trouble.
Tomorrow I will be attempting to create portions of my granddaughter's cat costume. We'll see how that goes. : )

This is where I hang my head in shame. I said I wasn't going to do anymore minis until some other projects were completed. I tried, but I couldn't resist. I blame credit Teresa and Kris. Last month Teresa posted some orange and black mini pineapple blocks as part of her Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. She was making these luscious little pineapples each month in the chosen Rainbow Challenge color. The orange ones made me so happy. But I don't paper piece (while I made the Lil' Punkys I muttered that to myself quite a bit!), so I just admired them and moved on. Then Kris just posted some she was making in orange and black for Halloween. She has already tempted me into making two other Halloween minis. What made me think I could resist this? So after the cat's hat was made, I took the little paper pieced pattern I had downloaded, resized and printed--pulled out the orange and black scraps that have seen a lot of daylight lately, and I made a mini pineapple block. This will finish at about 4". It wasn't too terribly painful. So I have a 3rd little Halloween mini in mind to make using a few of these. As I make costumes and finish a couple of gifts in the next week, I hope to be able to squeeze in a block here and there and maybe have it finished before the last trick-or-treat.

I went to bed Monday night listening to the wind and rain. I love to be lulled to sleep by those sounds, and we have not had them often enough this year. But Tuesday morning when I awoke it was quiet. My first thought was, "The rain has stopped." I opened up the window and snow fell in on me. We do occasionally have snow in October, but it usually warms up during the day and all melts off. Not this time. We are under a winter storm watch until Thursday afternoon. Tree branches were down all over town and power was out in some areas. When the leaves are still on the trees and the snow is this heavy and wet it puts too much weight on the branches and they can just break right off the tree, sometimes taking power lines with them. Hopefully it won't be this cold on Halloween. The kids can't show off much of their costumes when they have to be bundled in winter coats.
Until next time,
Janet O.

31 comments:

I love the snow seeing the snow covered mountains must be so beautiful.yes we had a horrible snowstorm last year in Oct unusual for us too.Love the hat, that will be a cute costume....very cute little pineapple block, hey you never can have enough mini quilts!!!!!!very nice of you to make a quilt for Doniene she will love that quilt.kathie

I love the colors in the star quilt! It is lovely! And the hat turned out great! Your GS will be so cute in it. I was just telling myself yesterday that I don't NEED any more small quilts. I need to get some larger projects finished! The mini is so cute, though, but no, I'm not going to do it. The snow pictures are beautiful! It's supposed to be in the 80s today here. I wish it was cooler - like in the 50s or 60s. That would be perfect.

Don't laugh when I tell you this ... I looked at the picture of your snow-covered mountain range and burst into tears -- it's so *lovely*! Oh I hope we see some snow this year! I LOVE the hat!! Great job! And lift that chin -- your mini piece is *darling*! And your Falling Stars 2 is really quite lovely! I love coming to your blog! :)

The snow is beautiful, but it seems early for it! Last year we had snow the last weekend in October -- we were at White Oak -- and that was the ONLY snow we had all winter! Not a single day of school closed :-(

As always, your projects are all great! Love the stars, and the cat's hat is awesome! Someone asked me to make a Halloween costume - my response was a resounding NO! I don't sew clothes, or anything besides quilts! LOVE your little pineapple - see...now you are a paper piecer...pretty sure that wool applique is next! Can't believe you have snow already, but it sure is beautiful. Every time you show a picture of your lovely view I really think it's a postcard! Beautiful!

Thanks a lot! LOL You've already led me into temptation I couldn't resist in making a mini like your orange/black rail fence. It was to be a single diversion, just one little quiltlet. Instead, it multiplied into *five* minis. And now you are tempting me with another....

My goodness! Snow??? We had 80 degree temps yesterday and snow is hopefully far off for us for a while. I do love snow though, so I won't mind seeing it when it comes :*) Your hat looks like a true CITH hat!!! Great job!!! Can't wait to see the cat costume. And your little Halloween pineapple is absolutely adorable - Love it!!! :*)

Your little mini to Doniene is so sweet! And I LOVE that pineapple block in orange and black! OH! I may need to do one too, now! Yikes! And is there anything more beautiful than that last shot of your gorgeous mountains in snow! I am so envious of that view! Enjoy every minute of cozy stitching while snowbound! :o) A cup of tea, some stitching, and that view......yep, life is good!

Doniene is sure to love this quilt! So pretty!It's been a long time since I made a costume. Good job on the hat.Love the black and orange pineapple. this will look great with a few more blocks. One of my favorite patterns.Snow! I'm jealous. It's supposed to reach 80 degrees here today. I hope you don't lose power.

We had a few snowflakes mixed with the rain, but nothing accumulated here like it did at your house! I saw Snow Basin got 12" - wow!

'tis definitely costume season. I spent Monday with DD#2 making a dragon costume for her little 2 year old and it turned out so cute. We found a tutorial online for making the tail that worked perfectly - then yesterday I was at Sam's and finally saw that magazine that your paper pieced JOL is in, and the exact same tail tutorial was in that magazine too! Thought that was funny!

Your pineapple block is yummy - I plan on making 9 of them someday soon and framing the mini quilt. But now DD#1 wants to borrow my sewing machine for costume sewing so I'll have to cool my heels till she's done.

Keep your snow in the Mountains! I'm glad I'm not travelling in it. Be careful if you go out driving in it. We've had rain and snow for Halloween before and it wasn't fun to cover up all the cute costumes. Grandma to the rescue. Some of my Grandchildren are wearing their Super-Me Capes again this year.

Nice projects Janet. You have been busy! I know what you mean about the mini paper piece pineapple block... I'm so tempted to make some using Christmas fabrics! I got off easy as far as Halloween costumes this year. The only thing I had to make was a green jagged neck piece for a frog costume. You'll have to post of picture of the Cat in the Hat cutie! Love the snow pictures!

The snow looks so pretty..we don't ever get snow where I am...Love the hat...the Cat in the Hat is going to be so cute,,Gorgeous pineapple block looks great...and the little mini quilt is adorable,Doniene will love it!Julia♥

Yep, everyone is right! I already LOVE it!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Give little Ben a big hug for me - the little cutie as the Cat in the Hat - one of my all time favorite stories - next to the "Little Red Hen"!!

I'm being strong - no new minis for me - yet!!! LOL

And I am totally nostalgic - nothing is more beautiful than that first snow - thanks for sharing a little bit of it with us!!

I'm wishing for a quick and safe trip for "Falling Stars 2". Doniene will be just as thrilled as I was. It's fun to share "sister" quilts with her. You are such a good Grandma! Ben will be a cute Trick or Treater. The snow was fun for a day, but I'm not ready for it to stick around! Love the pineapple block!

I love making costumes for the kids - but its been a few years - yours sound like great fun. We made them to fit over the winter coats.Sweet projects! Good luck with the mail.I think we have almost the same view - you looking East? me West?Thank you for sharing.

OMG It's too early for snow, but the pictures are fabulous. I love that hallow'een pineapple block, super cute. I've tried to email you but it has bounced back twice. I'm hitting "reply to sender" so I don't know what's going on.

About Me

My priorities are my faith, family, freedom and fun. I have a wonderful husband, four great grown children and five precious grandchildren. I love to quilt, read, walk, garden, make soap, watch old movies and play Euro-style board games. I am trying to come to terms with gluten-free baking.